This invention relates generally to protective headgear and, more specifically, to an impact absorbing, modular helmet that prevents injury and reduces damage to the user.
Protective headgear or helmets have been worn for a long time now, by individuals to protect against head injuries. The use of helmets is often a mandatory requirement for driving bicycles and certain other motor vehicles, in high impact sports and in material handling and other potentially hazardous locations.
The use of safety helmets has been just that—to reduce or completely protect the user from any top, lateral and penetration impact to the user's head. However, commonly used protective headgears use a hard outer casing with an impact-energy absorbing padding placed between the outer casing and the user's head. The flaw in these hard casing helmets is that they actually permit the generation of a high-impact shock wave and only after this shock wave is generated are they designed to minimize the strength of the shock wave and reduce its effects by the use of shock absorbing material between the hard casing and the user's head. If a rider wearing such a typical helmet falls off from a bicycle or a motorbike (to the side) and hits the surface hard with the helmet, the impact of the hard shell meeting the hard surface generates a shockwave and a high impact force, which is then absorbed (as best as possible) by the inner shock-absorbing material inside the hard casing and in contact with the rider's head. The impact force is often so great that the rider's helmet may even initially bounce back upon contacting the surface and the head may be yanked back subjecting the head and neck regions to additional injury causing forces. If the impact is high enough, it may lead to a concussion (striking of the brain matter to the skull with moderate force) or even a contusion (striking of the brain matter to the skull with high force) and may also lead to skull fracture.
Published research suggests that the human skull can fracture at decelerations as low as 225 G's and that concussions can occur at substantially lower decelerations. Research has shown that to offer maximum protection to the head, the rate of deceleration should be as low as possible.
Further, mandatory rules by industry organizations and/or government regulations often obligate the work force of specific industries such as the construction industry to wear ‘hard hats’, which again carry the limitations mentioned above—that of permitting the initial generation of a shock wave and ensuing attempts by shock absorbing padding in the headgear to absorb the said impact forces that cause this shockwave.
Hence, it is the object of the present invention to overcome the abovementioned problems and create a novel and improved, versatile, impact absorbing protective helmet.